Apparatus for forming axle bearings



' March-2; 1948. L. J. LYONS APPARATUS FOR FORMING AXLE BEARINGS Filed Feb. 25; 1944 INVENTOR LEE d. LYQNS BY AT"|%RNEY Patented Mar. 2, i948 APPARATUS FOR FORMING AXLE BEARINGS Lee J. Lyons, Webster Groves, Mo.

Application February 23, 1944, Serial No. 523,512

The invention relates to the manufacture of railway axle bearings, and particularly to such bearings as are lined on the journal side with a softer metal of lead base or tin base or other suitable metal.

It has long been the practice to line the bear- 4 Claims. (01. 22-123) ber 4 to feed its inner end 9 against the back of an ordinary journal bearing body Hi, the concave face of which is substantially concentric with ing with the softer metal by a casting operation in which the molten liner metal is poured into a mold, one Side of which is formed by the bearing.

The main object of the invention is to improve the strength and quality of the bond between the bearing and the liner, and it is an additional object to improve the physical qualities of the liner metal of the bond so that the liner will stand up better against the forces to which it is subjected in operation.

The present invention is directed to apparatus for manufacturing railway axle bearings having the characteristics described briefly above, and the novel axle bearing itself and the method of formin the same are the subiect matter of a divisional application. Serial No. 775,917, filed September 24, 1947.

These and other detail objects are attained by the structure and method described below, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a top view of a pouring bench showing two mandrels which' form parts of molds by which the liner is formed, there being a bearil'lg and a holding device therefor associated with one f the mandrels.

Figure 2 is a front. view of the structure shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a detail vertical transverse section taken on the line 33 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a detail view of a restricted portion of the holding member and is taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 1.

The bench or base i may be of any suitable material and extent and adapted to support one or more circular or semicircular mandrels 2 each having its axis disposed vertically and having a lower flange 3. The'man'drel'will be firmly secured. to the base. A holding member 4 comprises an elongated arm pivoted on a bracket 5 to swing in a vertical plane from the full line position shown in Figures 1 and 2 to the broken line position shown in Figure '2. In each of these positions, the outer end of the arm will be supported and positioned transversely of the bench by a suitable holding jaw 6. Intermediate the ends of member 4, it is threaded transversely to receive a clamping screw 1 having a handle 8 at one end by which it may be rotated in memthe surface of the adjacent mandrel 2. The side edges H of the bearing will seat against suitable ribs [2 Ion mandrel 2, and preferably ribs l2 will be shouldered at l3 to properly position the hearing transversely of the mandrel.

A substantial portion of holding member 4 is hollow and forms a conduit l4 leading from a supply pipe 15 to a series of discharge outlets l6 abreast of and facing towards bearing [0. Preferably, this portion of member 4 is enlarged, as best shown at IT in Figure 4. Cooling liquid is supplied through pipe l5, cut-off-valve l8 and adjusting valve I 9 and is discharged through outlets I6 against'the back of bearing 10.

' Before being applied to the mandrel, the bearin It! has a liquid flux applied to its concave surface and is then immersed in a kettle of molten solder and allowed to come up to a temperature well above the melting temperature of the solder. The bearing is then removed from the solder, its concave surface being covered with a thin coating 22 of the solder. The bearing is then quickly placed against the mandrel and the clamping screw 1 tightened to thrust the bearing edges l I.

against the mandrel lips l2. The space between the arcuate portions of the mandrel and the hearing forms a mold for the liner metal 2| which is poured promptly after the application of the bearing to the mandrel, the liner metal and the thin coatin 22 of solder uniting to form a bond between the liner and the bearing proper.

During or immediately following the pouring of the liner metal, valve i8 is opened and water or other cooling fluid is discharged against the back .of the bearing body which is cooled rapidly, thus solidifying the portion of the liner metal 2! adjacent to the bearing In more quickly than the cooling and solidifying of the portion of the liner metal adjacent the mandrel 2.

' As is Well understood in the casting art, the metal will be most dense and consequently stronger where it is cooled quickly and less dense where it cools slowly. Any shrinkage occurring during the latter portion of the cooling operation will be along the surface which is adjacent to the mandrel and not along the surf-ace which is ad- .jacent to the bearing body. Hence the blond between the bearing and the liner will be stronger than if the liner metal were cooled from the mandrel towards the bearing and there will be less likelihood of minute cavities, known as "segregation, between the bearing and the liner, which facilitates loosening of the liner from the bearing after the bearing is put in service and the liner is subject to thrusts and impacts under heavy loads.

Promptly upon completion of the pouring and solidification of the liner metal, clamping screw I is released and holding member 4 is swung 180 to bring the clamping screw opposite to the right hand mandrel 2 and another bearing is applied to mandrel 2 and the pouring operation duplicated. By using the mandrels alternately, their temperature may be held below a point where cooling and hardening of the liner would be impeded. Also this alternate use of the mandrels will provide for leaving the cooling liner in a position long enough to permit it to harden so that it may be handled without deformation of its journal-engaging surface 23.

To avoid cooling of the liner metal at the'ends of the bearing before the metal cools at the center of the bearing (and thus causing the liner metal to shrink and pull away from the back of the to the bottom of the mandrel than to the top so that cooling and solidification begins at the lower end of the bearing (Figure 3) and proceeds upwardly, particularly in view of the fact that the metal is poured from the top, and the lower portion of the liner metal will be cooling while the upper portion is still being poured into the mold. Thus there is always a supply of molten metal just above the point of solidification which moves upwardly as the molten. metal flows into the mold and the last point of solidification is at the upper end of the bearing.

Since bearings of the type under consideration are usually formed of brass or bronze having a high degree of conductivity, the radiation of heat from the outer portion of the liner metal will be readily efiected when the back of the bearing is cooled by the discharge from the conduit. Obviously the differential between the rate of cooling of the liner metal at the bearing and at the mandrel may be increased by using a closed mandrel or by applying heat to the inner face of the mandrel.

It will be understood that air or other fluids may be used in place of water for cooling the back of the bearing and that other details in the structure may be varied without departing from the spirit of the invention, and the exclusive use of those modifications coming within the scope of the claims is contemplated.

What isclaimed is:

1. In apparatus for casting liner metal in a railway aXle journal bearing, a mandrel arranged to cooperate with the bearing to form a mold for liner metal, a holding member abreast of but spaced from the mandrel far enough to freely accommodate the positioning of a bearing between the mandrel and the member, a device calried by said member and operable to clamp the bearing against the mandrel, the member forming a conduit for cooling fluid and having outlets adjacent said device for discharging the fluid against the back of the bearing.

2. In apparatus for casting liner metal in a railway axle journal bearing, a mandrel arranged to cooperate with the bearing to form a mold for liner metal, a holding member abreast of but spaced from the mandrel far enough to accommodate the positioning of a bearing between the mandrel and the member, a clamping screw threaded through the member and projecting therefrom to engage the back of the bearing and hold it to the mandrel, said member forming a conduit for cooling fluid and having outlets around the clamping screw for discharging the fluid against the back of the bear- 3.

3. In apparatus for casting liner metal in a railway axle journal bearing, a mandrel arranged to cooperate with the bearing to form a mold for liner metal, an elongated member with a portion remote from one end extending abreast of but spaced from the mandrel far enough to accommodate the positioning of a bearing between the mandrel and said portion and said portion having means for engaging the back of the bearing and holding the bearing against the mandrel, said member forming a'cooling fluid conduit from said end to said portion and said portion beingprovided with. outlets for discharging said fluid against the back of the bearing, there being valves adjacent to said end for controlling the supply of cooling fluid to said conduit,

4. In apparatus for casting liner metal in railway axle journal bearings, spaced mandrels each arranged to cooperate with an individual bearing to form a mold for liner metal, a cooling fluid supply pipe positioned intermediate said mandrels, an elongated member pivoted at one end to said supply pipe and forming an extension;

thereof and having a discharge outlet spaced from said end and movable when the member is swung on its pivot to be directed towards either one of said mandrels, said member including means for holding a bearing to the adjacent mandrel, there being means associated with the supply pipe for controlling the passage of cooling fluid therethr'ough, whereby the holding means may be applied alternately to bearings associated with the mandrels and may discharge cooling fluid against one bearing while the liner metal in the bearing applied to the other memher is solidifying.

. LEE J. LYONS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 421,289 Kinsey et al Feb. 11, 1890 683,824 Weld Oct. 1, 1901 876,135 Bertram Jan. 7, 1908 1,258,702 Pearman Mar. 12, 1918 1,321,478 Russler Nov. 11, 1919 1,341,938 Shoemaker June 1, 1920 1,433,763 Warn Oct. 31, 1922 1,717,950 Summers c- June 18, 1929 2,044,897 Boegehold et al. June 23, 1936 2,058,621 Pike Oct. 27, 1936 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 22,004 Great Britain 1902 

